UTEP women's basketball: Telles' work ethic sets tone for Miners

Junior point guard, Burges graduate took long route to return home

UTEP guard Stacie Telles gets some on the court coaching from associate head coach Ewa Laskowska as the team went through drills Monday afternoon in preparation for their first game of a two game homestand against Louisiana Tech. ( RUBEN R RAMIREZ—EL PASO TIMES )

Stacie Telles is never going to be imposing.

The point guard for the UTEP women's basketball team is maybe 5-foot-6, thin-framed, no ball of muscle.

Despite that, the Burges grad is easy to find. If it's 20 minutes before practice, Telles will be in the gym working on her shot. During practice she'll be the one leading the sprints, leading the drills, going in the only gear she knows. It's a high one.

"She is a tone-setter," coach Keitha Adams said. "She goes hard in every drill, she runs hard every sprint, she gets in on the shooting machine a lot. She puts in extra work, extra time. Her work ethic is very appealing."

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"I've always been like that, that's something my dad always told me, that you always have to work hard," Telles said. "Whenever you're small, people don't think of you as as much of a threat as someone who isn't short. Over time I've gotten used to that. When you prove them wrong it's something to feel good about."

That ethic, that drive to prove herself has been a constant. Despite taking a star turn at Burges where she graduated in 2011, her only offers out of high school were from New Mexico Junior College and New Mexico Highlands. UTEP was aware of her, but not terribly interested as the Miners thought they were set at the point.

So she went to New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs and turned that into a positive.

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"Going JUCO helped me actually," Telles said. "It helped me mature, I learned a lot of little things I didn't know before. I got a lot more Division I offers coming out of junior college than I got before."

"She gained a lot of experience," Adams said. "Coming out of high school, the point guard position was not something we were looking at at the time. After last year, we knew we needed to add another point guard.

UTEP guard Stacie Telles takes the team through drills Monday afternoon as the team prepares for their first game of a two game home stand against Louisiana Tech. (RUBEN R. RAMIREZ — EL PASO TIMES)

"She's gotten a lot better. She's a blue-collar kid, she works hard every day, she does what we ask her to do, her effort is really good. We're really happy about having her."

Perhaps the player Telles has had the biggest impact on is the starting point guard Kelli Willingham. Because of injuries and then the dismissal of back-up point Jamie Madden, Willingham was playing 38 minutes per game late last season, and she's a demonstrably better player at 29 minutes per game, which is what she's at in conference play this year.

"It feels great, knowing when I come out there's somebody who can come in and take care of business," Willingham said. "And I love playing with Stacie, I like it when we're in together."

That happened a bunch Saturday against Tulane when the two points were needed to handle the Green Wave's pressure, and while UTEP does give up some size when Willingham and Telles are on the floor at the same time, the quickness and passing adds a dimension.

Telles "is very quick, very fast, she's a lefty and that's neat," Adams said. "We're playing her and Kelli more together, they feed off one another."

Besides giving UTEP 21 bench minutes a game, Telles brings something the Miners have never had before: a second El Pasoan.

She and the team's best player, senior forward Kayla Thornton, were district rivals through 2010 when Thornton was at Irvin.

"It's great having two El Paso kids on the team," Adams said. "People who've never seen Kayla Thornton play should see Kayla Thornton play, people who've never seen Stacie play really should see her play.

"This is kind of unique. We've always had one but we haven't had two."

"I was never on her, I was a post, but we all knew her," Thornton said of their high school days. "She was cold (good) in high school. She's still cold now."

What Thornton has come to appreciate playing with Telles is her willingness to take on blue-collar roles.

"She does the little things," Thornton said. "She gives us a spark. She's a great overall player, a great shooter."

The line on local players is that they either want to stay near home or get away, and Telles definitely fit the former category. When UTEP started recruiting her last season, it was an easy sell.

"It's very exciting, my friends and my family get to watch me," Telles said. "When I was in Hobbs they couldn't do that. ...

"When I was younger I came and watched Jareica Hughes play, Natasha Lacy, there were some girls I looked up to, hoping one day I could be like them.

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